The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 291: Learn from the West to Defeat the Enemy, Go to Shanghai (Request for Subscription, Request for Tickets)
North of Yangzhou City, outside Wayao Town.

As the sun sets, the sky turns red with a rosy cloud floating in the air. The thunderous sound of cannon fire gradually fades away, revealing a moment of drowsiness.

Suddenly, passionate singing swept across the vast autumn land and rushed towards the more than 10,000 Hunan warriors who had been thrown into panic and chaos due to the continuous battles and the fierce artillery bombardment of the Taiping Army.

"His pride laughs at the waves, and his blood is hotter than the red sun."

There was a commotion among the Hunan Army lined up with their backs to the canal. Everyone involuntarily took a few steps back and looked up at the sky filled with red clouds.

In the past few days, whenever this song was sounded, a "red ball" would rise from behind the Taiping Army formation, and then the most terrifying hand-to-hand assault would begin!
Although the Taiping Army's artillery fire was now extremely fierce, equipped with twelve 12-pound cannons and assisted by foreign gunners, the Hunan Braves under Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie could still hold on by relying on the haphazardly piled up simple fortifications and the swords of the supervision team.

However, once the Taiping Army, singing "A Man Should Be Self-reliant", launched a hand-to-hand attack, Zeng Guofan's Hunan Braves would surely collapse at the first blow. The reason for this was not that the Hunan Braves really did not have the courage to fight the crazy Taiping Army hand-to-hand. It was that the elite of the Taiping Army under Yang Xiuqing had now learned a whole set of extremely lethal new tactics from Luo Yaoguo's upper army!

In every hand-to-hand assault, the brigades equipped with bayonets would lead the charge. Bayonets could be used for both long-range and hand-to-hand combat! Moreover, the effective range of the Taiping Army's "hundred-step bullet" was relatively long, and the killing effect within fifty steps was considerable!
In addition, these Taiping Army's foreign rifle brigades not only had "line soldiers", but also skirmishers and grenadiers. Skirmishers were snipers. Although they were also equipped with smoothbore rifles, they had better marksmanship and specialized in shooting officers and gunners. Most of the Taiping Army's grenadiers learned how to make nitrate grenades (including smoke bombs). Although the quality of the nitrate grenades produced was uneven and they might not kill many enemies, they could at least create a cloud of smoke - by adjusting the ratio of nitrate or because the nitrate was damp, it was possible to create clouds of smoke that filled the battlefield.

Therefore, before the Taiping Army's hand-to-hand assault, there would often be sniper fire from skirmishers, grenades thrown by grenadiers, and several rounds of volleys from line soldiers. Only after the battlefield was filled with smoke and the Hunan Army was in chaos would they launch a bayonet assault.

Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army was not equipped with many foreign rifles at the moment - some of the foreign rifles that Luo Xueyan bought from Shanghai were given to the Jiangbei Camp and the Hunan Army, but the foreign rifles given to the Jiangbei Camp would never be used by Zeng Guofan's army, and the foreign rifles given to the Hunan Army were of course given to the left-wing Hunan Army.

Therefore, the muskets equipped by Zeng Guofan's troops were almost all old-fashioned matchlock muskets. Not only could they not form dense arrays of muskets, they did not even have bayonets. Without any new equipment, there were naturally no new tactics. Everything was the same as that of the Green Camp. The only difference was that the military pay could actually be paid to the soldiers, and the soldiers did not smoke opium, so they had better physical strength. In addition, the soldiers had a network of relationships with their clans, teachers and apprentices, fellow villagers, and in-laws, which made the troops more cohesive and able to fight again and again despite repeated defeats.

In the past few days, Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie's Hunan Army was defeated three times by Yang Xiuqing, but each time they were able to gather their troops and fight while retreating towards Wayao Town on the west bank of the canal north of Yangzhou City.

There was a reason why they retreated to Wayao Town instead of Yangzhou City. Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie thought that Yang Xiuqing was coming to attack Yangzhou this time, and there was also Prince Gong in Yangzhou City.

So as long as their Hunan Braves opened the road to Yangzhou, Yang Xiuqing would most likely let them escape.

Moreover, Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie had already left a backup plan in Shaobo Town on the east bank of the canal. Several camps of Li Wenxuan and Miao Peilin were set up there, and a lot of food, salaries and ammunition were stored.

As long as the army retreats across the canal and reaches Shaobo Town, they can take a short breather and then retreat to Huai'an
Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie could not have imagined that Prince Gong and Qishan had already abandoned Yangzhou and fled! Qishan led more than 10,000 troops from the Jiangbei Camp to Huai'an, burning wooden bridges on the canal along the way. Prince Gong and Shengbao led a small number of followers and personal soldiers to Guazhou, boarded two old lock ships from Guangdong, and headed to Shanghai to join Luo Xueyan.

As they fled, the whole city of Yangzhou was in chaos, and people with some wealth followed Prince Gong to flee to Guazhou. The Tiandihui and Taiping Heavenly Kingdom spies lurking in Yangzhou took the opportunity to launch an uprising and sent people to contact Yang Xiuqing's army.

So Yang Xiuqing divided more than 10,000 soldiers to seize Yangzhou City and Guazhou Port, while he led his troops to continue chasing Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie. As a result, they chased all the way to the bank of the canal outside Wayao Town. Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie found that the wooden bridge on the canal was burned by someone and had to bite the bullet and set up a battle of back to water, wanting to learn from Han Xin and Yang Xiuqing to fight a battle of back to water.

But they overlooked the fact that most of the Xianghu people could swim, and the Grand Canal was not very wide, and there were not many winds and waves, so they could just swim across in a few strokes. If they could swim, who would risk their lives against more than ten thousand crazy people from Guangxi who were blessed by God?
So after a while, Zeng Guofan and Huang Shijie saw the Hunan Brave men under their command rushing to the bank of the canal like dumplings, and then jumping down with a "thump thump"!

Behind them, the Taiping Army, holding foreign rifles with bayonets on, shouted the slogan "May God bless you" and rushed forward like crazy!

And in mid-air, "God Yang" is "blessing" on the spot. If any holy soldier sacrifices, his soul will go to heaven immediately!
"Teacher, I have tried it, the water is not cold. Please jump into the river!"

Zeng Guofan was drowsy when he suddenly heard someone telling him to jump into the river. He turned his head and saw that it was his good student Huang Shijie. He smiled bitterly and said, "Ziying, is it time to report to the king in times of trouble?"

"Teacher!" Huang Shijie knew that Zeng Guofan had misunderstood, so he pulled him to the river bank and explained, "The canal is not very wide, you can just swim across. It doesn't matter if you can't swim. I have arranged two people who are good at swimming to help you swim. There is also a horse that you can hold by its tail across the canal. A few miles further on is Shaobo Town, where Li Yuchuan's soldiers are. As long as we meet up with Li Yuchuan, everything will be fine!" "Can it be better?" Zeng Guofan seemed a little discouraged.

"Yes!" Huang Shijie nodded heavily, "Of course! Teacher, you have seen that the reason why the Taiping rebels are so powerful is that they bought foreign guns and cannons, and hired foreign generals to train their troops with Western methods. In the final analysis, isn't it to learn from the barbarians in order to defeat the barbarians? This approach was proposed by Wei Liangtu from Hunan! By the way, Wei Liangtu is now in Gaoyou Prefecture. After we cross the canal, we will retreat to Gaoyou and work with Wei Liangtu to learn from the barbarians in order to defeat the barbarians!"

"it is good!"

Zeng Guofan was immediately alerted after hearing Huang Shijie's reminder. He looked back and saw the flashing of bayonets. The Taiping Army was about to attack!

"Let's go! Let's cross the canal and go to Gaoyou Prefecture to find Wei Liangtu first! Then we have to go to Shanghai!"

"Going to Shanghai?" Huang Shijie was stunned.

"Yes! Go to Shanghai and find the foreigners. Then you can learn their skills and defeat them!"

In the air, on a balloon.

Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, saw everything below, including the Taiping Army's great victory and the Qing Army's crushing defeat.

However, he did not show much joy at this moment, and his pale face became increasingly gloomy.

"White!"

Yang Xiuqing suddenly spoke.

"Chen is here!"

The person who answered was a foreigner with a pale face but light in his eyes. It was Winster White.

"How many foreign rifle teams does Luo Xueyan have?" Yang Xiuqing asked.

"Ten thousand!" Winston White replied, "At least ten thousand! He has purchased more than one million silver dollars worth of arms during this period, including foreign guns, cannons, fixed ammunition, barreled gunpowder, saltpeter, and warships. In addition, he has signed a large number of contracts that have not yet been executed. Most of the arms shipped from India have fallen into his hands!"

Yang Xiuqing narrowed his eyes slightly and chuckled, "It seems that I have to contact more foreigners. Lao Bai, do you think I can also build a port in Guazhou Port and invite foreigners to come here to do business?"

"Yes, of course!" Winster White immediately realized that this was a rare opportunity. "Your Highness, King Dong, I can contact the envoys of various countries in Shanghai for you!"

Yang Xiuqing shook his head: "No need to bother, I will go to Shanghai myself!"

(End of this chapter)